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Susan Aitken, the leader of the council, said: “We agreed to abandon the current WPBR pay and grading scheme adopted in 2006 and replace it with a new scheme. We instructed officers to look at a number of potential options and select a scheme they thought was more appropriate for Glasgow City Council to adopt.

“Ultimately, it’s left us with the SGC third edition scheme.

“It’s used by the overwhelming majority of Scottish councils. It makes sense that we should use the scheme used by the vast majority of our local authority colleagues.

Since May, full council meetings have been held amid noisy protests by the GMB and Unison unions outside the city chambers.

In August last year the Court of Session ruled that it had not been established that WPBR was a valid job evaluation scheme.

As a result, the council does not have a valid defence against the numerous equal pay claims it has received.

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Ms Aitken said that with the new system there would be “winners and losers” but that there had been equality proofing surveys carried out to ensure fairness across the genders.

She also admitted that full implementation of the scheme could take up to three years.

Ms Aitken added: “The equality proofing part of it was important so that the scheme is the least challengeable and will deliver the most equality in terms of gender pay.

“For everyone’s sake, I would hope to have this implemented sooner rather than later because clearly, while WPBR has not been found to be discriminatory by the courts, it has come under such challenge, I have no confidence that it would pass a test had it got that far in the courts.

“We have to implement SGC properly and not rush it through and inadvertently make mistakes or repeat the mistakes of the past. It’s going to take a number of months, probably the best part of the remainder of this council term.”

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Labour group leader Frank McAveety said: “We have to find real solutions that are robust should the law change. We need a system that tackles that issue fundamentally. I welcome the speed we’ve arrived at this stage.”

And Allan Young, Co-convenor of the Green Councillors Group, added: “The decision to adopt the job evaluation scheme used by most Scottish councils is a welcome step.

“Even before settlement negotiations started, the Greens were clear that we had no confidence in the council’s previous scheme and it must be replaced.

“The priority now must be to get everyone back to negotiations and ensure we get a fair equal pay settlement for those who have lost out for so long.”